The BOAI-Form should also know that Professor Chartron works hand in hand with French publishers. In a somewhat hilarious manner, she mistakenly released a draft of the document proposed below to a French OA list (accesouvert), allowing all readers to see that she consulted these publishers to get their approval. She did this just after the Couperin [French library consortium] meeting in Paris which was attended by a number of OA advocates at the end of January, including Stevan harnad and myself, but also Alma Swan and Bernard Rentier, etc. (apologies to those not named here). She was present at that meeting, and quite perturbed by the fact - so she claimed - that publisher shad not been given their due place in the debates.

A little later, another day was organized, this time by publishers, where she intervened in a prominent fashion. In her intervention, which is available as a video (in French) on the Internet (http://www.openaccess-shs.info/interventions-videos/), both Stevan Harnad and myself had the honor of being called "extremists"... In my case, I was characterized as an "influential extremist". If true, I am deeply flattered.

Essentially, she and her acolytes, the publishers, take the position that publishers are at the center of the scientific communication system, not researchers. In effect, research works for publishers, not the reverse.

I am sure many readers of this list will appreciate...

Jean-Claude Guédon

Le lundi 18 mars 2013 à 21:49 +0100, Ghislaine Chartron a écrit :

For information:

Open access: Scientific work and public debate in the Humanities and Social Sciences, threatened by measures recommended by the European Commission

Open letter from the editors of French language journals in the humanities and social sciences to the Minister of Higher Education and Research, the Minister of Culture and Communication, the presidents of universities and grandes écoles, and heads of major research institutions

Motion and List of the first 110 signatories (last updated on March 18, 2013) :